The goal of this book is to provide you with the essential information that every manager needs to know about operations and supply chain–related activities in a firm. Times have changed dramatically over the last few years. Organization structures are now much flatter, and rather than being functionally organized, companies often are organized by customer and product groups. Today’s manager cannot ignore how the real work of the organization is done. This book is all about how to get the real work done effectively. It makes little difference if you are officially in finance, marketing, accounting, or operations: The value-added work, the process of creating and delivering products, needs to be completed in a manner that is both high-quality and maximally efficient. Many of the things you do, or will do, in your job are repetitive, even some of the most creative and high-profile activities. You should think of this course as preparing you to be your most productive and helping you help your organization be its most productive.

We can consider the importance of the material in the book on many levels, but let’s focus on three. First, consider your role as a business unit manager with people working under your supervision. Next, in the longer term, you probably have aspirations to become a senior executive with responsibility for multiple businesses or products. Finally, you may decide to specialize in operations and supply chain management as a long-term career.

In your role as a manager with people working under your supervision, one of your major duties will be to organize the way work is done. There needs to be some structure to the work process, including how information is captured and analyzed, as well as how decisions and changes and improvements are made. Without a logical or structured approach, even a small group may be subject to errors, inefficiencies, and even chaos.

Designing efficient process flows is an important element of getting a group to work together. If your group is involved in creative activities such as designing cars, buildings, or even stock portfolios, there still needs to be structure to how the work is done, who is responsible for what, and how progress is reported. The concepts of project management, manufacturing and service process design, capacity analysis, and quality in this text are all directly related to the knowledge you will need to be a great supervisor in your organization, and getting your group to work productively and efficiently will lead to success and more responsibility for you.

Next, think about becoming a senior executive. Making acquisitions, planning mergers, and buying and selling divisions will get your name and picture in business magazines. Deals are easily explained to boards, shareholders, and the media. They are newsworthy and offer the prospect of nearly immediate gratification, and being a deal maker is consistent with the image of the modern executive as someone who focuses on grand strategy and leaves operations details to others. Unfortunately, the majority of deals are unsuccessful. The critical element of success, even with the grandest deals, can still be found most often in the operational details.

Real success happens when operational processes can be improved. Productivity improvements from things such as sharing customer service processes, purchasing systems, distribution and manufacturing systems, and other processes can lead to great synergies and success. Operations accounts for 60 to 80 percent of the direct expenses that limit the profit of most firms. Without these operations synergies, designed and implemented by executives with a keen understanding of the concepts in this book, companies are often left with expensive debt, disappointed customers and shareholders, and pressure on the bottom line—on earnings.

Finally, you may be interested in a career in operations and supply chain management. Well, you are not alone. Professional organizations such as the Association for Operations Management, the Institute for Supply Management, and the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals have well over 200,000 members participating in regular monthly meetings, annual conferences, and certification programs. Entry-level jobs might be as a forecast strategist, project manager, inventory control manager, production supervisor, purchasing manager, logistics manager, or warehouse specialist. In addition, top operations students may obtain their initial jobs with consulting firms, working as business process analysts and system design specialists.

We encourage you to talk to your instructor about what you want to get out of the course. What are your career aspirations, and how do they relate to the material in this course? Write your instructor a short e-mail describing what you want to do in the future—this is invaluable information for tailoring the material in the course to your needs. As you work through the text share your experiences and insights with the class. Being an active student is guaranteed to make your experience more valuable and interesting.